


Adtempero

by ThatRavenclawBitch



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Movie AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 01:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14842874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatRavenclawBitch/pseuds/ThatRavenclawBitch
Summary: What if you wanted to control your own fate, but there were unseen forces manipulating events? Adam Gold has been told his fate, but he chooses something else.I caught the tail end of The Adjustment Bureau this morning and then this happened.





	Adtempero

It was raining, and he finally had his chance.

Maine had been unseasonably dry all summer, the sun beating down and turning the grass in the town square a tawny shade of brown. Mr. Gold’s lawn was, of course, as green as the wad of cash in his wallet. His lawn was watered every morning and evening by an automatic sprinkler system, sprawling out in front of a large home he hadn’t set foot in in two years, and paid for by automatic bank draft from an account he never much looked at. He had money to spare, but money hadn’t brought him happiness. It wasn’t enough. 

Only one thing ever was.

He’d gladly give it up; the money, the power, the influence, if only he could ensure her happiness. He’d decided on that weeks ago, but he had to wait for the rain. And today, finally, it was raining. 

The fact that it was her wedding day didn’t escape his notice. It was fitting that his time would come now, at the very last possible moment. It was almost as though the fate he’d been warring with for years now had a sense of humor.

He would have a matter of moments to make this work. They would follow him as soon as They realized he was on the move. There was no time to waste. But Gold found himself frozen in the living room of his Boston apartment, his hand resting on the doorknob. 

He was afraid. Not of what They would do to him, but of seeing her again. The last time he’d seen her he’d broken her heart. She’d only ever looked at him with love in her eyes and to see them filled with hurt and pain and accusation, he couldn’t bear it. The alternative was worse, however. So he picked up the hat Jefferson had given him and placed it on his head, the brim slipping low over his forehead. He’d never had the head for hats and the brown fedora was no different. He was sure he looked ridiculous. It didn’t matter.

He placed his hand back on the doorknob of his apartment and turned it clockwise.

He suddenly found himself staring down the cramped back hallway of Granny’s Diner in Storybrooke, Maine instead of the spacious hallway outside his apartment front door. He shook off the disorienting feeling that travel through the doors always caused as Ruby Lucas appeared at the end of the hallway.

He let the door swing closed behind him, blocking out the view of his high-rise apartment beyond. Ruby blinked a few times as if trying to dispel what she’d just glimpsed. 

“Mr. Gold?” she said with disbelief. A glance over his shoulder showed Gold he’d just appeared through he doorway to the women’s restroom. He couldn’t explain any of this to Ruby and didn’t have the time or inclination to do so anyway so he fixed her with his most imperious glare before brushing quickly past her.

The dining room of the diner fell silent as he appeared from the back, but he paid them no mind, rushing out into the rain pouring down outside.

He’d never been much of a sprinter, and the ankle injury They had caused him only complicated things further. But he’d worn his best brace today, the one that allowed him to walk without the aid of his cane for all that he'd brought it with him just in case, and he began a hobble-skip down Main Street, ignoring the twinge of pain he felt with every step. He could only hope that the rain would be enough of a deterrent that he could get to Belle without being caught. If he could just explain things to her, just tell her how he really felt, that would be enough.

The church wasn’t far from Granny’s which was why he’d chosen the diner as his entrance point in the first place. But it felt like ages until he was throwing himself up the front steps of the quaint, white building. The bell tower overhead clanged out, two echoing peals of the bell marking the time. He could only hope he wasn’t too late.

He burst into the narthex of the church, his sopping wet pin striped suit dripping water across the parquet flooring and his borrowed hat doing little to shield the rivulets of water cascading down the back of his neck and pooling under his shirt collar. He gave a little shiver, looking around.

Through the small window in the doors to the sanctuary he could see a handful of people seated in the pews, a man in a dark navy suit standing at the altar with the reverend. There was no bride though, not yet.

A door to the right bore a dress-bedecked stick figure signifying it as the women’s bathroom and Gold steeled himself, taking a chance. 

The door banged open and Belle spun around from where she was adjusting her hair in the mirror above the row of sinks.

“Adam?” she gasped. “What – what are you doing here?”

She was so lovely, wearing a tea length ivory dress with little cap sleeves, her dark hair pulled back away from her face. But her cheeks looked pale, her eyes rimmed with red. So Jefferson hadn’t lied after all. Gold would have let her be if she was truly happy. It was why he had left in the first place. But Jefferson had come clean to him, telling him the truth of the Bureau's manipulations. Belle wasn't happy and neither was he. Perhaps they could change that. 

“We don’t have much time,” Gold said, walking forward to stand in front of her. “But I had to see you, I had to tell you the truth.”

“Truth?” she asked, still gawping at him. “What truth?”

“I love you,” he said. There was no hesitation now. No reason to worry about what might happen. He’d given her up two years ago because he’d been convinced it was the right thing to do, that she would achieve her dreams and live the life she’d always wanted, but only without him.

“You _love_ me?” she demanded, incredulous. “No one has ever, _ever_ hurt me the way you did!”

“I know that,” he said, placing a hand over his heart. “And Belle, I am so sorry for what I did.”

“You left me,” she accused. “You didn’t even have the decency to break up with me to my face. You said you would never hurt me and you broke my heart!”

“I know,” he said again. “But sweetheart, I love you and I know you love me too. I didn’t always believe it and I’m sorry for that. I did what I thought was best for you and that was wrong. I should never have taken away your choice in the matter.” 

“What are you talking about?” she yelled, raking a hand through her chestnut curls and causing a few of the pins in her coiffure to come loose. “For God’s sake, Adam, it’s my wedding day.”

“I needed the rain,” he explained. “It’s harder for Them to follow me when there’s water nearby.”

“Who are They? What are you talking about?”

As if on cue the door to the bathroom slammed open, a man in a suit and a fedora busting in. Without a thought, Gold turned and cracked the gold handle of his cane over the man’s head until he fell with a thud against the black and white tiled floor.

“What the hell!” Belle exclaimed, backing away from the scene in front of her until she was pressed against the bathroom sink, her hands coming up to cover her mouth in horror. “Who is that? What are you doing?”

Gold used his cane to jam into the bathroom door handle, effectively locking it in place. Then he bent down to rifle through the man’s waistcoat, surfacing with a slim leather bound notebook in hand. 

“This, Belle,” he said, holding the notebook up in front of her. “This is what drove us apart. They have a plan for us, some sort of fate we all have to follow. They told me that if we were together you’d never achieve your dreams, that I would hold you back and destroy you. But that’s not true at all. Because there is no world that could be better off for us being apart. There’s only one future I’ve ever wanted and that’s the one where you an I are together.” 

Belle was staring at him as if he’d lost his mind and he figured, from her perspective, he certainly had. He flipped open the notebook, laying it down on the bathroom counter next to where her hand was braced against it, keeping her upright.

“Look at this,” he said, pointing down at the notes. “They have tracked every moment of our lives. Right here is where we met and here is where we were supposed to part forever but we didn’t. We didn’t and they threatened you until I broke things off. But I’m through listening to what other people think.”

Belle stared down at the notebook, her eyes wide.

“I don’t understand,” she said with a shake of her head.

The bathroom door gave a lurch, his cane flexing at the impact. More of Them had come.

“They’re here,” he said, taking Belle’s hand. “They’re going to try to tear us apart again. They’re going to wipe my mind because I told you about Them. Now we can stay here, or we can run.”

Belle just shook her head, looking from the shaking bathroom door to Gold and back.

“Let me show you,” Gold said, crossing the bathroom to the door to a small supply closet. “I just…I need you to trust me.”

Belle kept staring at him, flinching when the bathroom door groaned against a weight being forced against it.

She nodded, one quick jerk of her head, and Gold turned the closet doorknob revealing the Storybrooke docks beyond.

If possible, Belle looked even more shaken.

“How?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

He didn't have time to explain things right now and he could only hope Belle would see the sincerity in his eyes. 

“I can go through this door alone,” he said. “You'll never see me or the people chasing us again. You can go and get married and never think about this moment and what might have been. Or you can come with me. I don’t know what will happen, but we’ll be together, for better or worse.”

Behind them the cane holding the door shut splintered, a loud crack echoing in the small bathroom.

Belle nodded, tears glistening in her eyes as she took Gold’s hand. 

"I'm coming with you." 

He pulled her toward him and through the door on to the docks, the supply closet door slamming shut behind them.


End file.
